A nonvolatile memory is one example of the semiconductor device. For example, a known nonvolatile memory includes, as a memory transistor, a MOS (Metal Oxide Semiconductor) field effect transistor that stores information by accumulating a charge (hot carrier) in a sidewall insulator layer of a gate electrode sidewall.
In the nonvolatile memory including a group of memory transistors that store the information by accumulating the hot carrier in the sidewall insulator layer, a programming speed of the entire nonvolatile memory depends on programming speeds of the individual memory transistors. If the programming speeds of the individual memory transistors are not sufficiently high, it may not be possible to perform, within a tolerable time, a predetermined programming in a system that includes the nonvolatile memory, depending on a capacity of the nonvolatile memory.
Accordingly, a semiconductor device designed to improve the programming speed of the memory transistor is proposed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2016-184721, for example. This proposed semiconductor device can improve the programming speed of the memory transistor.
On the other hand, there recently are increased demands to further reduce a power consumption of the semiconductor device.